


i fell in love with art i didn't understand

by aaliyrah



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Hipster!Chloe - Freeform, Slow Burn, as it goes, but basically itll follow a bit, from bts, idk ill see if its worth continuing, idk yet, if people like it that is, im writing along, jeuss christ, punk!max
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-15 21:20:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15421833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aaliyrah/pseuds/aaliyrah
Summary: Inspired by the LiS: Before The Storm's plot, but it takes place in the original Life is Strange timeline.Chloe Price and her friends made a non-offical DnD club for any one to join. But the daily harassment they receive from the Vortex Club prevents anyone from even thinking about it.Because of this, the few remaining members the club had started to dwindle, being tired of getting harassed and bullied. But Chloe hangs onto the group, desperate to get everyone to stay. After scrounging up most of the group members and successfully arranging a meet up, a mysterious transfer student showed up to Blackwell in the middle of the year and changed everything.





	1. where the cover deceived her pages

**Author's Note:**

> (ratings and stuff will be changed later on)  
> this was actually suppose to be a brookate fanfic, and you can probably tell in the beginning. but i got inspired from lis:bts, and because i didnt feel like starting anew, i decided to edit this abandoned piece from 2015.
> 
> i also decided to NOT do my "10k words for each chapter" rule from before BECAUSE THAT IS JUST INSANE.
> 
> what's diff:  
> -chloe and david's relationship is more balanced than one-sided  
> -max lived in seattle her whole life  
> -the vortex club is shittier, but there will be minor changes there  
> -jefferson isnt a drugbitch  
> -max's dad is a photographer  
> -max has DIMPLES. IMPORTANT.

* * *

 

 

 **[ CATERPILLAR’S** **CACOON (CAFÉ) ]**  

 

 **_Brooke’s P.O.V_ **  

The place stood still as death. It was so peaceful, hearing a pen drop would startle a few customers. The air conditioner only filled in the silence, some coughs here and there with the sounds of slurping and clanking glass adding on. This place was never really popular, and rarely busy: some people would only come in for the joy of a peaceful atmosphere. It's a perfect place to just get lost in your thoughts. 

I leaned into the counter, elbows resting above it while I scanned the area. Everyone was distracted within their devices or books, necks pulled into whatever is in their hands; might as well join the crowd. 

As I reached for my phone, a sudden bell rung, disrupting the peaceful environment; everyone's head turned to where the sound was located, including me. A person entered the area, one of my friends, and I smiled when I noticed a familiar face. 

“Hey, Chloe. The usual?” 

“Hey, Brooke. And yeah, the usual. Prepare yourself one too if you have time to talk?” 

“I don’t think so; I got my hands full with all these orders.” I gestured to the few customers that filled the room, catching some glances and I saw some of them smile at that. 

Chloe followed where ever my hand pointed and softly chucked. “Sorry to add into your troubles, then.” 

 “Sit wherever, I'll be there in a bit with your tea.” She obeyed and left with a nod, dawdling towards a corner table with a window next to it. Chloe immediately occupied herself with the limited sights the window had to offer while I poured the steaming water into a cup, steam bombing in my face that created moist skin. 

As I put the tea-bag next to her cup, I finish her order with another replica of tea next to hers,  _for my order_ , and I headed towards her table. Chloe heard my hushed footsteps, leaving her attention of the window to now me, and gave me a friendly smile when I came to our table, which I tried to mimic. 

“Geez, I'm not really use to handing these out in trays. Usually people nowadays only come here to read and everything. I barely serve.” 

As I placed the tray above the surface of the table, Chloe lifted her eyebrows. “Business is  _that_  slow around here?” 

I nodded. 

“Why work here then? You seem like the engineering type from all those drones and everything. I never thought you'd work at a place like this, no offense,” she asks as she reached for her mint tea-bag. 

“Ehh, none taken. I couldn't find any ‘engineering’ jobs that I'm interested in joining, or find any open slots to fill in, but I found this place. They were desperate for workers, so I decided to help for a while until they gain some popularity. Which won't come by fast, basing on the days I've worked here,” I answered, muttering the last sentence. “I don’t get a whooping stash of money, but I  _at least_ get paid. A little lower than average, and it's not a start, but I'm hoping that this place would get the attention it deserves.” 

By the time I finished, Chloe has already poured in her sugar while lazily stirring it, nodding along at the end of my sentence. “Mm, yeah. This place makes  _great_ tea. I should move Kate and I’s session here.” 

“Who's Kate _?”_  

Chloe stopped stirring her tea and looked at me with a mix of surprise and confusion. “You don't know Kate?” 

I shook my head in return. 

“Didn't I talk about her?” 

“Uh, yeah. Just a few seconds ago. You guys have tea sessions?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Oh, so you never tagged along a person that  _actually_ knows shit about tea along?” I said with a mocking bitter voice. “Touché, Price.” 

Chloe giggled. “Sorry, Brooke. But Kate doesn’t know you, at least, I don’t think she does.” 

“ _Does_ she have to know me?” 

“Mm, I suppose it's a requirement; she’s pretty shy. Though, I'm not so sure. But I'd like you guys to meet. I was going to ask her to move our session here, like I said before.” 

“How often are these sessions?” 

“Weekly. I can align the meets with your schedule so that you can join.” 

“Cool. Hope I don’t scare her off.” 

“Fingers crossed.” 

I scoffed and Chloe giggled, patting the back of my hand. “Screw off.” 

“It won’t be happening next week though,” she says, ignoring what I said, “I got a DnD meet up and Kate won’t be available in the weekends because of church stuff. Still, want to come with?” 

I already gave her that stare right after she said DnD; that stare that screams  _really?_  Chloe didn’t say anything though and only stared back, seeming oblivious. It was only when that I cocked an eyebrow that generated a reaction. 

“Aw, come on, Brooke!” She suddenly exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air and added a little bounce to them when she put them back down. “I came here unarmed, wanting to have a good time, and all I get is  _j_ _u_ _d_ _g_ _e_ _m_ _e_ _n_ _t_ _,_ _”_ she says, stretching the last word with a harsh, ghostly, raspy whisper. 

I chuckled at that. “That isn’t the problem, Price, and you know it. I came to some of the meetings and I had a blast, but the  _harassment_  you get from the Vortex Club just ain’t convincing me to come again any time soon.” 

“Oh. Right,” Chloe says in a voice laced with slight disgust and deadpan. Her whole body when limp in an almost comically matter that I sputtered a light laugh I tried hiding in my throat. 

Chloe, Steph, and Mike arranged a small non-official club to play DnD in Blackwell’s campus and they meet up at least 4 times a month; anyone can join. They call themselves  _The Triple E’s._  People come and go, but the most consistent members are the trio who started it all, plus Warren and Stella. I’m not too consistent to be part of the nerd family, but I’m not a one-time comer as well, so I’m a favored visitor. They call me  _The Vigilante Whisperer_ , or  _Virgil_  for short, because I mostly watch and offer advice, to the Dungeon Master or the players alike. 

It’s always fun, but because it’s in the campus, students like to interrupt from time to time, especially the Vortex Club. They sometimes not-so-subtly gossip about the group from afar and on other days they’d just out right harass them; guess it depends on the weather or something. It’s on special occasions, but if they catch at least one of The Triple E’smembers staring at them gossiping, it’s a guarantee they’d stomp right into the game. The crew figured that out so they tried ignoring them, but the Vortex Club would taunt the group by purposely shouting their gossip at them. If they get frustrated seeing that the taunt isn’t working, Vortex would harass the E’s anyway. Chloe tried moving the location of the group multiple times, but either people would rat them out or by some luck, the club themselves would bump into them. 

Whenever the E’s break a loophole, the Vortex Club would just make another one. 

“I don’t understand how you still have fun when you know they’re going to come and just ruin it; it’s inspiring I guess?” 

“I’m trying to make a movie out of it,” Chloe humors dryly as she moves her tea spoon around the rim of her cup with her pointer finger. “I’m planning on calling it  _Girls (Plus Mikey and Sometimes Warren) Are Just Trying_ _to_ _Have Fun.”_  

“Ever tried going off-campus?” 

“We’re in a moment in the story where some characters are really crucial for the plot, we can’t afford them missing a meeting and the only way to 99% guarantee that is that we do it in school; every single one of us have perfect attendance. Plus, I think some people are following us  _just_ to inform the Vortex Club where we are. I heard they’re even paying people who leak our location.” 

“Jesus Christ. They really like picking on you guys.” 

Chloe shrugs, pursing one corner of her lips back. “Got’ta love admirers. Living the life of fame isn’t really that grand as people think it is.” 

 _She makes fun of the whole Vortex Club drama as comedic relief but...isn’t this hurting her at least a little? I’m going to take a big leap of faith here and say that getting harassed all the time for doing something you enjoy is not a pleasant thing._  

“Chloe...you ok—” 

“Nope,” the girl says before sipping her coffee, her face  _completely_  neutral. 

I didn’t expect such a straightforward answer so I flinched from it. “—ay...?” 

“I came here to just ask if you were coming, since, y’know, you haven’t been to the last 3 sessions. We all do understand though; Stella completely fell from the group after the first incident, and Warren has been missing a few meetings here and there. I was going to actually go and talk to him after this to see if he’s coming this time,” Chloe says in a voice as if she’s asking about the weather. She was simultaneously gathering her things and talking at the same time. “It was nice catching up with you. I’ll come by time to time, and I’ll bring Kate! I’m sure you two will get along.” 

By the time Chloe said the last sentence, she already tucked her chair back to place, slid me the money for the tea and was already going to the exit. 

I only managed to stutter the  _W_  in  _wait_  before she was out the door. 

Before this group was assembled, Chloe was known to be the invisible kid around the school. But before she earned that reputation, she had another not-as-known one. When I first saw her on the first day of school, she looked genuinely...excited. Like she was a little kid on Christmas; she was so giddy and she couldn’t keep still. I was annoyed at it at first, and I regrettably had some rude thoughts about her. 

But after first block was over, I passed her in the halls, 

And that smile was gone. Something in first block made her realize how horrible the students were, I guess. 

Rarely anyone knew this “reputation” of Chloe because it was so short-lived. After this group was assembled though, in her senior year, it was like those two sides of her co-existed: she was only giddy when she had free time and when the group would meet up, but besides that, she mostly tries to tuck away from everything. 

 _Chloe’s trying s_ _o_ _hard to prolong this group’s limit because it’s probably the only thing she looks forward to. That’s..._  

 _So. Depressing. God, I kind of feel bad_ _for not going._  

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 **[ SHE WANDERS.** **]**  

 **_Chloe’s P.O.V_ **  

 _“Sure.”_  

“Yeah? Really?”  

 _“_ _Yeah,_ _I think my balls grew big enough today to come.”_  

I silently pumped my fist, biting my lip in excitement but I managed to leave the eagerness out of my voice. “It’s sad that I got bigger ones than you.”  

 _“Cut me some slack, Price! I don’t understand how you’d willingly go out to get harassed just to play some tabletop game. I can be_ pretty  _cocky and it truly hurts to say this, but you, for real, got the_ biggest _balls I know of.”_  

“Damn. Is this what love feels like?” 

Warren moaned in disgust and it immediately dispersed into laughter once I started to laugh.  _“Whatever. Do you know who else is coming?”_  

“The usual three.” 

 _“_ _Y’know_ _, I get the whole ‘triple e’ thing n’ all, but technically me and Stella also have e’s in our name, so why don’t we call it_ The Quintuple E’s? _”_  

“I thought about it, but it seems excessive to add onto the e’s every time someone with an E joins the gang. And Brooke is basically in the group too, so it would be  _The Sextuple E’s_  if we keep the pattern going. 

Plus, there’s also 3 E’s in ‘ _The Triple E’s’_ so I thought that was a cool bonus.” 

 _“Ah, fair point. And speaking of Brooke: is she also coming?”_   

“Nah, I already asked. Same reason as the other 3 sessions she’s missed.”  

 _“Damn. We already lost Stella in the group, I don’t want to lose Brooke, too.”_   

I sigh, my shoulders rising and falling concurrently with my chest. “Me too. But I have faith in this group,  _and_  Brooke. We’ll get through this.”  

 _“Not to put any pressure on you Chloe, but you’re basically the glue of_   _The Triple E’s. If you go down like Stella, this group is not going to survive.”_   

“You know, Warren,” I say as I absentmindedly walk around kicking a rock, my pace rather slow with over-exaggerated leg lifts. “Saying,  _‘Not to put any pressure on you,’_ really helped not putting pressure on me.” 

 _“Sorry. But you’re really the only one out of the main three that’s actually going through with the schedule we planned.”_   

“Tell me something I  _don’t_  know.” 

I don’t blame them. I completely understand why they just want to drop this group. At points, I don't even feel like this group is worth it. Some days, we don’t even try to continue on with the game; we just wait there, staring at the board, as if staying still would make them stop. The excitement and dedication were lost in everyone’s voices; no one’s acting in their own character anymore, even Mikey tries to shorten what he says to at least 5 words. Stella tries though; she  _is_  the Dungeon Master and being direct is harder than trying  _not_  to be. 

But I can tell that she doesn’t want to. 

I know there are people in the school who pity us; want to help us. Dana used to be in the Vortex Club, but she got kicked out once someone rattled her out that she’s been warning us whenever the club found out our location; she still tries to warn us to this day. Along with Taylor Christensen and Juliet Watson: they were also kicked out for standing up for us. Courtney Wagner is Taylor’s inside woman for whatever Victoria is planning. Luke Parker and a couple of skaters are like the shadow pranksters for us whenever we wanted a little justice. Dana even made a group chat for all of the people who are helping us; everyone deletes their conversation once they were done talking, and we even have a secret word just in case someone got hold of anyone’s phone. I wanted to call this secret team  _Wild Ones_ , since everyone’s secret word was based off of an animal. But it was a democracy, so they decided  _Animal Crackers_. It has a nice ring to it. 

It works, but apparently the group is only good for outside the game, warning us about Vortex Club being near, or for poking a little fun at them; they can still harass us while we’re playing. The shadow group cannot reveal themselves without being a constant enemy towards the club; the girls who used to be in Vortex get  _a lot_ of graffitis and break-ins in their dorms. We can’t even enjoy the game most of the time since we’re always on the move from them. Sometimes we don’t even feel like doing the effort and just play at the usual bench at the front of the school, near the girl’s dorms. We’re planning to go to the usual spot next meeting.  

There was a long pause at Warren’s side, and all I was accompanied by was static for a while until he made a tired sigh.  _“All this drama, just so they could bully us.”_   

“And here, we just wanted to play some stupid tabletop game.” We both gave out an airy laugh, and I stopped in my tracks, allowing a few seconds of silence come between the line before addressing something in my mind. “Thinking about the drama we’ve caused because of that makes this all so...surreal.”  

 _“It’s been going on for months now. What did we do to get them to like_ hitting _us so much?”_   

“Probably because we’re an easy target, and we actually kind of fight back. You’d rather play with something alive than dead.”  

 _“So, necrophilia’s an excuse_ — _?”_   

“God, Warren, what the hell.” He was already bursting into laughter at his end after I interrupted him and said the first word. “Ugh. I’ll see you in the meeting.” 

I hung up on him after his struggle to get the word  _wait_  out of his laughter. 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 **[** **THE PRICE** **HOUSEHOLD** **]**  

 **_Chloe_ ** **_’s P.O.V_ **  

“Mom? David? I’m home.” 

I saw a figure craning their neck over the couch they were laying on to see who was at the door. 

“Hey, Chloe,” David greets from the sofa. He was reading a book. “How’ve you been?” 

“ _Goood_ _,”_ I say, overemphasizing on my vowels. “How ‘bout you, David?” 

He doesn’t like it when I call him by his first name, not that I do it just to piss him off; I respect him and learned to like him since he was patient enough to wait for me to warm up to him after my dad’s death. But I explained to him that it didn’t feel right to call  _him_  “dad” for me, and I guess he understood that 'cause he hasn’t tried to correct me since and only flashes a grumpy expression time to time. 

“I’m good.” 

… 

He isn’t much for small talk either. He tries, but it gets  _so_  awkward. 

“Uh. Okay. I’ll be in my room.” 

“Okay.” 

“Okay...bye.” 

I guess he didn’t see the point in making it more awkward for the both of us anymore, so I just saw him do a small wave goodbye before going back to his book. 

Going to my room, I made a beeline to my computer and opened up Discord since I saw a notification from Mikey. 

 

 

   


> **Mikey:** You up to video call? 
> 
> **Chloe** **:** group call? 
> 
> **Mikey:** Steph, Warren, and Brooke. 
> 
> **Chloe** **:** brooke? 
> 
> **Mikey** **:** She still wants to be a part of the group, just doesn’t want to deal the whole Vortex Club thing. 
> 
> **Mikey** **:** Plus, the whole thing isn’t just about  _The Triple E’s._  We’re all friends, we can just talk and stuff. 
> 
> **Chloe** **:** okay, sure 
> 
> **Mikey** **:** I’ll invite everyone in a second. 

He wasn’t lying about the  _seconds_  part, since I got a notification right after I finished reading his text. I accepted and saw everyone join one my one. 

“What’s shakin’ nerds?” I say first, swaying myself around my chair with my toes anchoring me in place. 

 _“Nothing much,”_ Steph replies, sounding a little tired.  _“I’ve been writing the plot for what’s to come next for you guys, and I came across a fork in the road.”_  

“Well, we can help you with—oh, right.” 

 _“Exactly.”_  

 _“Why don’t we just play the game over Discord?”_ Warren butts in, whining with an exaggerated sulking expression. 

“That only benefits me, Warren. You all still live in the dorms at Blackwell and if they find out that we’re doing it over video call—”  

 _“They’ll start coming in our rooms,”_ Mikey finishes for me,  _“not even Chloe’s witty insults will faze them anymore since anyone can act tough through the screen.”_   

“They might even start going to my house if they find out my address, egging it and shit. I doubt they aren’t going to be that petty.” 

 _“You’re the daughter of the head of the security. I’m sure they won’t mess with your house.”_   

“True; they can be quick though, be gone faster than they arrived. Or hide their faces, who knows. They’re stubborn as hell.” 

Warren groans, rolling his eyes to the back of his head. He was resting his cheek with the heel of his palm and his head slowly dragged down to his elbow the longer he groaned.  _“Any chance the Animal Crackers said anything?”_  

I softly chuckled. It’s hard to take them seriously with the name they decided to give themselves. “Not really, Justin and Luke just told me about some new transfer student, I don’t know why though.” 

 _“New transfer student? In the middle of the school year?”_ Mikey questions.  

 _“Oh yeah, I meant to talk to you about that Chloe,”_ Brooke says, appearing next to Warren eating a bucket of popcorn.  _“I don’t know her name_ _,_ _but from what Justin says, she looks like one of those delinquent punks.”_  

I rolled my eyes. “New enemy?” 

 _“Actually, this might surprise you.”_  

To that, I rose an eyebrow, surprisingly pleased. “Oh?” 

 _“_ _Apparently,_ _she’s already made_ _enemies with Prescott, and if you make enemies with the_ _Prescotts_ _, you’re automatically an enemy to the Vortex Club.”_  

I leaned back in my chair, an unconscious smile on my face. “Nice to hear.” But it quickly disappears once I realized something. “She’s probably going to be independent though; from what you described of her, she doesn’t seem like a person who’d like tabletop games.” 

 _“So?”_ Brooke says with a mouth full of popcorn.  _“She doesn’t need to. She can join Justin and Luke with their shenanigans of little pranks. Seems like a good fit.”_   

 _“If she even wants to join,”_ Warren tells her. 

“Yeah, but I kind of want some new players though, it’ll get some excitement going.” 

 _“The Vortex Club is scaring off anyone who’d like to join us, Chloe,”_ Mikey intrudes,  _“I doubt we’ll get anyone new_ _anytime_ _soon.”_  

I sigh, my muscles relaxing as I exhale. “Bunch of pussies,” I mumble. 

The group lightly chuckled at that. 

“What she do that made Nathan tick?” 

 _“I heard two rumors, but they end the same,”_ Brooke says, passing the bucket of popcorn to Warren.  _“One says they just picked on her but she got_ real  _smart_ _. The other was that she saw someone getting bullied by them and she decided to step in, but they didn’t say who the plausible victim was.”_  

 _“Huh.”_ Steph was tapping her chin.  _“She sounds like a good person either way.”_  

“Nice to hear that someone’s willing to stand up against the Prescotts.” 

 _“Besides you,”_ says Mikey.  _“_ _You got a sharp tongue, Price. You don’t push it that far though.”_   

“The feeling is  _very_  satisfying, but the last time I got smart with them, they wrecked my car. It was expensive to replace the tires.” 

 _“Never thought that piece of shit junk could get any worse.”_   

“First off,  _Brooke_ , just because it’s true doesn’t mean you have to say it.” 

Warren nudges Brooke with his elbow and the whole group lightly laughs. 

My phone dings, indicating a text notification. I looked at my screen and see it was from Justin. 

 

 

   


> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Chloe ? 

“I’ll be back in a bit, Justin just texted me.” 

They said their goodbyes before I left from the view of my webcam. I typed in my secret code before he told me some news. 

 

 

   


> **_me:_** butterfly 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Ay Wassup 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Someone Vandalized Prescotts Car 
> 
> **_me:_** wow 
> 
> **_me:_** who had the guts? 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** New Chick 
> 
> **_me:_** what she say? 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip_** ** _!:_** The Prescocks Can Suck My Dick 
> 
> **_me:_** classic 
> 
> **_me:_** why tell this to only me though? 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Oh Yeah I’ve Talked To Her 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** She’s Surprisingly Quiet 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** I Mentioned You And She Wants To Talk 

_Uh. What._  

 

 

   


> **_me:_** for what? 
> 
> **_me:_** what’s her name anyway? 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** You’ll Find Out 
> 
> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Peace . 

I deleted the conversation after that, contemplating for a bit before going back to the group. “Yo, weird news my dudes.” 

“ _Yeah?”_   

“Justin told me he spoke to the transfer student and she wants to talk to me.” 

 _“What? What for?”_ Steph didn’t seem like she was listening to the group before I came back since she was absorbed with writing something she was propping on her thighs. 

“Justin didn’t tell me. I guess I’ll find out later.” 

Brooke huffed, rolling her eyes.  _“Is he the most mysterious person ever or what?_ _”_  

They laughed and I shrugged. “A little mystery can be fun.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (psst, i need ur help here)  
> i don't know if i should make warren and brooke a couple,  
> or kate and brooke a couple,  
> please help me
> 
> also, if you're confused:  
> the group formed in their senior year and chloe has been attending blackwell since she was freshman.


	2. to me, you are a ghost i long to see

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe wanted to hang out with friends today.  
> But one disaster lead to another.  
> Luckily though, she didn't need to wait for tomorrow for a better day. She just needed to be patient.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i considered the ship thing, thanks guiiis
> 
> also, idk if any of you follow my tumblr, but i deleted it. and you know what the funny part is?  
> IT WASNT ON PURPOSE. ugh. follow me if you want to @its-callamastia
> 
> also, i felt like first person perspective didn't seem right, so i went with a limited 3rd person.

There was a polite, gentle knock on Chloe’s door that tapped some drowsiness out of her system. She stirred and she made sure to make a loud enough groan so that they knew she heard them. 

They did, and they cleared their throat before timidly speaking through the door. “Chloe?” 

“You can come in, David. Door’s open.” 

The door creaked open, but David only peaked his head in. “It's 10:00 A.M.; time to get up, soldier. Breakfast is about ready.” 

"Gee, you let me sleep in?" 

"No reason not to let you since it's the weekends, but we didn't want you to skip out on breakfast. Get up now." 

Chloe laid on her back and made an exaggerated salute to the ceiling. “Ay ay, Cap’n,” she flatly says before making her arm go limp, collapsing it on her chest. “What’s on the menu?” 

“Waffles.” 

“Belgium?” 

“Yes.” 

Chloe suddenly lifts her upper-body, swinging her legs to the end of her bed. “All right, I’m up. Give me a minute.” 

David was amused seeing how fast she got up, and got briefly worried she received whiplash. It only lasted a second though and he made a pleased hum before closing the door to go back to Joyce. 

Tomorrow is going to be The Triple E’s 3rd meeting of the month. 

Chloe can’t really say she looks forward to it anymore, even though she was the one who dragged everyone to go and was the most positive compared to the whole group. After the 1st, 2nd, and even 3rd incident, she was still hopeful with an unfazed smile on her face. It’s hard to stay that way when you’re surrounded by people who didn’t think the same, though. 

She decided to push the group to the back of her mind for now and texted a quick reply to Kate’s message before going down to eat breakfast.

 

> **_fave_** ** _angel:_** Good morning, Chloe! The place where our youth group is camping won’t be having wifi, so I wanted to say goodbye before I get to church. Hope you guys have fun with Alice! (^.^) xoxo 
> 
> **_me:_** we will katiee 
> 
> **_me:_**  have fun! :) 
> 
> **_me:_** xoxo 

“Ahoy, lassies!” Chloe yells in her pirate voice, diverting her parent’s attention to her. “Have ye spared some booty for thee?” 

Joyce shakes her head, entertained. “Took you long enough, Captain. We saved a piece, but you came in the nook of time before we started to get selfish.” 

The girl groaned, slumping her shoulders and miserably walked to the table. “Uugh, I have yet to decide whether or not to let ye walk tha’ plank or not, landlubber. Because you only saved me one!” Chloe dropped her accent at the last sentence. “Now I got to chew on my fingers as an appetizer or something.” 

“Early bird gets the worm, hun.” 

“Yeah but David just woke me up no more than a minute ago, how could the two of you eat so much?” 

Joyce looked at her daughter for a moment of suspense before averting her eyes to her husband, then looks back at Chloe as if she’s giving her a hint. 

David turned his head and softly belched in the inside of his elbow, drinking his coffee afterwards as an effort to compose himself. 

“Christ, were they the size of squished gumballs or something? How the hell—” 

“Language, missy.” 

Chloe tucked her elbows in, holding her hands up in surrender. “Sorry. And, uh, do you mind dropping me off at Blackwell? I’m sleeping over at Kate’s with a couple of friends, Joyce already approved.” 

“I respect your choice of not calling me your father, Chloe,” David comments, suddenly austere; but his voice was soft. “But I will not tolerate you calling your mother by her first name—” 

“David, I don’t—” 

“C’mon, I’m not  _trying_  to disrespect my mother,” Chloe says, apathetically. “I’m close to her s’all. She doesn’t even mind it, David—” 

“I said  _I won’t tolerate it_. Apologize to your mother.” 

“Chloe, no, that isn’t necessary. David, just drop this.” 

“She needs to learn a little respect,” David says as he whips towards Joyce, his voice rising a little in volume. “She’s careless Joyce—” 

“Listen, David,” Chloe butts in, her voice impatient, “You have different labels of right and wrong compared to us. I get that it can sound disrespectful for other people, but I honestly don’t give a crap if one day mom decides to call me a  _dickwa_ —” 

“ _Chloe._  Don’t push it.” 

Chloe’s jaw was loose for a moment when her mother interrupted her before she pursed her lips; she  _may_  have gone a little overboard.  

Now awkward silence hung in the air. David’s criticizing stare was digging a hole through Chloe’s head while Joyce was holding her temple as if she had a migraine. 

That silence felt like an  _eternity_  to Chloe. She was waiting for a backlash from David, a temper tantrum maybe, or even a lecture. But he just stood there, staring. And even though Chloe averted her eyes from him, she felt his condemnatory glare subsiding; softening. 

After a while, the man just huffed and stomped to the garage, but he closed the door respectfully; it was a pleasant surprise at least. 

But the tension wasn’t over, since Joyce took David’s place in silently grilling Chloe alive, except she isn’t even  _looking_  at her. 

 _Lesson learned, at least_ , Chloe thought. Even her inner monologue sounded remorseful. 

Time ticked by before Joyce decided to cross her arms and sigh, picking up keys in the ashtray next to her and headed towards the front door. 

“C’mon, hun,” Joyce said in a soft voice, touching Chloe’s arm when she passed her. “I’ll take you to Blackwell.” 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

> **_dungeon dweeb:_** Chloe, are u coming 
> 
> **_me:_** omw 
> 
> **_me:_** family stuff went down 
> 
> **_me:_** played the move w/o me? 
> 
> **_me:_** movie* 
> 
> **_dungeon dweeb:_** Nope 
> 
> **_me:_**  be there in a few 
> 
> **_dungeon dweeb:_** Cya 

 

 

As soon as Chloe slid her phone back into her pocket, Joyce sighed, indicating she was about to speak. The girl braced herself for another lecture, which she knows it’ll happen, one way or another.  But her mother had a mutual feeling of wanting to forget what happened for a while. 

“So... isn’t that Kate Marsh girl out for camping?” 

“Yeah. We all wanted to take care of Alice though, so we decided to just hang in her room for the night, shower that little guy some love.” 

“Oh. You’re sleeping there?” 

“Wasn’t the plan at first until shit went down.” 

Joyce went silent after that and when she did, Chloe realized she fucked up. She closed her eyes, scrunching up her face in regret. 

 _Dammit._   

Chloe shouldn’t have mentioned the incident since any reference pointing to the situation would automatically lead the conversation to a lecture. 

“Listen, Chloe... I know that it’s still hard for you to adjust to David being your step-dad. And I really appreciate you trying, hun. He’s trying too, you know.” 

“Yeah.” Chloe leans her head on the window, trying to focus her attention on the scenery being played out to her—even though she’s memorized every single detail the route offered her. “I know.” 

“But you do have to respect him, Chloe,” Joyce says, switching her tone with a slightly assertive one. The moment Joyce said the first word, the girl was already rolling her eyes to the back of her head. “Even if you don’t necessarily like him, that doesn’t change the fact that he is living under our household and under  _our_  care.” 

“Okay, first off,” Chloe says in an eerily soft voice, almost interrupting her mother. “Who said I don’t respect him? Who said I didn’t like him? He can be annoying as  _shit_  sometimes, but he’s an overall okay guy. I didn’t get all up against his  _bidness_ , I wasn’t raising my damn voice at him, I didn’t life a finger. All I did that made him tick was a couple of naughty words and  _‘infringing’_  on his definition of respect, so what the hell did I do wrong?” 

“He wasn’t raised like you were Chloe,  _that’s_  the issue; you have to understand that.” Joyce was glaring at Chloe through the rearview mirror from time to time.” You said so yourself that you could see it was disrespectful to other people, but for some reason, you couldn’t understand that it was disrespectful to  _him?_  What made him so special that he ain’t like ‘other people,’ Chloe?” 

“He lives under  _our_  house, and under  _our_  rules. He doesn’t have the right to change that!” 

“And we also don’t have the right to change what he thinks! Respecting someone’s thinking doesn’t mean that you should throw away  _your_  view from it. You can strictly only call me all that ‘mom,’ ‘mother,’ titles around David, but you can still do it while he’s not around, simple as that!” 

“But he was  _forcing_  his view on  _us!_  How is it fair—?!” 

 _“ENOUGH,_ _CHLOE!”_ Joyce’s head suddenly whips around to Chloe, her eyebrows dipping downward caused her forehead to crease. Chloe never heard her yell at her in such volume and it was a little scary. “I had enough!” 

 

 _BEEP, BEEEEP!_  

Both of the woman turned their head simultaneously to the front, seeing that a car was coming right at them. 

Before Chloe ever had the chance to even utter a single vowel, she jolted towards the dashboard of the car. Her seatbelt held her in place, but the force was great enough to make the material seep into her exposed skin, right below her collar bone. The bumpy edge of the seatbelt managed to saw several layers of skin to leave a temporary, massive scar across Chloe’s chest, but the adrenaline deflected the potential feeling of pain. 

Joyce suddenly swerved to the right edge of the street as an instinct, spinning the car in 1/4th of a circle before the momentum came to a halt. The tires of the car left very conspicuous and belligerent skid marks on the road and so did the car that honked at them—which was nowhere to be seen—but it wasn’t continuous like Joyce’s; their mark was like a skinny S without the middle part while Joyce’s was almost like a C flipped to the right, but the top half was missing. 

Smoke fumed from the back of their tires while sweat emerged from Chloe and Joyce’s forehead, both of their faces visibly red with heavy breaths and their pupils were contracted. They both stayed frozen still, but there was a blatant tremor in their frames. 

They both knew what the other was thinking. 

Joyce was the first one to get out of her daze. The moment she heard her daughter stutter for her— “ _M._ _.M-mom..._ ” —she scrambled to unbuckle her seatbelt. Once she was finally free, she unbuckled her daughter too and immediately devoured her into her arms, whispering in her hair as she repeatedly groomed Chloe’s hair with the palm of her hand. 

“I’m here baby, it’s okay, you’re safe, it’s okay, Momma’s here...” 

The moment Chloe felt her mother’s hand brush her was the moment she started to bawl. Chloe pulled her into a spine-breaking hug as she started to sporadically jolt. She showered her clothes with tears and drowned out any noise there was with her weeping. Her fingers were digging into Joyce’s shirt and she pulled them enough to stretch the fabric of it to leave an imprint of her digits. 

She cried her heart out and then some. All of the pint-up anger and sadness she ever denied to confess barfed out; it was unwanting, but it was inevitable. 

 _Get out of my head._  

 _Get out of my head._  

 _Get out of my head._  

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 **_Chat has been_ ** **_idle for 20 minutes..._ **  

 

> **_me:_** stephie, watch the movie w/o me 
> 
> **_me:_** im gonna be late 
> 
> **_me:_** ive seen it already anyway 
> 
> **_dungeon dweeb:_** You wanted to see our reaction to it tho 
> 
> **_dungeon dweeb:_** Why what happened 
> 
> **_me:_** an accident on the road 
> 
> **_me:_** ill tell u guys when i get there 

**_Chat has been idle for_ ** **_5_ ** **_minutes..._ **  

 

> **_dungeon dweeb:_** What ??? 

**_Chat has been idle_ ** **_for 13 minutes..._ **  

 

> **_dungeon dweeb:_** Chloe?? Please answer 

 

 

 

 **[NEW TEXT NOTIFICATION** **]**  

 

> **_elamon_** ** _:_** Hey, you okay? 

**[NEW TEXT NOTIFICATION** **]**  

 

> **_copper_** ** _:_** Chloe? You okay? 

**[NEW TEXT NOTIFICATION]**  

 

> **dana the warden:** Hey, talk to me. 

**[NEW TEXT NOTIFICATION]**  

 

> **_tellurium_** ** _:_** You all right? 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“You’re sleeping over, right?” 

“I think that’s what I said, yes. Something wrong?” 

“I know it was a last-minute decision so you didn’t pack for anything... Are you going to borrow from a friend?” 

“Dana is around my height, my size I’m guessing... I can ask her. Or go nude.” 

“Chloe.” 

“What? I heard it was good for you. 

And I can wear my undergarment if it ever comes to that; whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.” 

“What about your toothbrush?” 

Chloe shrugs, her shoulder feeling heavier than usual. “Dunno,” she replies, sounding far-off. Her attention was to the window. “I can just mouthwash. Or eat the toothpaste, if that even does anything. Get creative.” After a moment of silence Chloe scrunched up her eyebrows, thinking.  _“_ Wait...  _does_  that do anything? _”_ she mumbled to herself, squinting as if the answer was in front of her in a really small font. 

As much as Joyce wanted to laugh, it’d be out of pity, and she didn’t want that. But she made the faintest of smiles, even though Chloe didn’t see it—and probably wouldn’t see it either way anyway. 

Chloe’s defense mechanism is humor. Well, it’s more appropriate to call it a “deflecting attempt.” No matter how bad or what the situation was, she’d always try to make light of the condition for the sake of her dignity and, probably, for the sake of the other person as well. She believed that laughter is the best medicine, so she always tries to get purposely smart after situations like that; she tries to be appropriate though. 

Mostly. 

Chloe flipped open the retractable mirror from the top of the car, examining her eyes. The red vignette dye around them are less noticeable than before, except a few pronounced veins here and there, but they were still  _very_  sore. Her eyelids felt weighty and it was an effort to try to elevate it higher than half-way. 

“With a little convincing, I could pass up being high.” Chloe closed the lid on the mirror before flipping it back up to the roof of the car, turning her attention back to the window. “It’d be less worrying.” 

“Would it now?” Joyce’s tone unconsciously sounded authoritative and stern; a mother’s flair. 

Chloe didn’t seem to give any care to it though. “For the students, yeah,” she deadpans. “I don’t even think my friends would be surprised. It’s a perfect getaway.” 

“Hmph.” 

“David deals with those kinds of guys every day; he’d know one when he sees one, so if you’re worried about any secrets—” 

“No, Chloe, I ain’t worrying about anything; I know one when I see one, too.” 

“Oh, right. Uh...how’s that working out for you?” 

Chloe was never a fan of small talk; it felt so awkward and too  _formal_  for her. But she’d rather face it than face silence in the state that she’s in at the moment. 

“I’m guessing it’s going good, seeing how my own daughter forgot that I smoked.” Joyce wore a proud little smile, and it was contagious enough for Chloe to subconsciously return one too. “Though I can’t say I’m committed to my word; I sneak one here and there during work.” 

“David knows about this?” 

“Yes. He’s being very supportive. He's been buying me a lot of nicotine gum.” 

"Chew on em' much?" 

"I've rarely been tempted." 

Chloe decided to end the conversation there. “Good to hear.” 

 

 

 

 **_You have invited_ ** **_elamon_ ** **_, copper, tellurium, dana the warden, and dungeon dweeb to a group chat._ **  

 **_You named the group "_ ** **sleepover".**  

 

> **_me:_** srry for the worry. im ok xoxo 
> 
> **_me:_** ill tell u guys what happened when i get there 
> 
> **_dana_** ** _the warden:_** You better, Price. 
> 
> **_dungeon dweeb:_** How long till u arrive 
> 
> **_me:_** im close 
> 
> **_copper:_** You're sleeping over? 
> 
> **_me:_** step-dad and i had a fight 
> 
> **_me:_**  don’t want 2 c him rn 
> 
> **_me:_** more details later 

 

 

 

Chloe knocked on Kate's door, and not a moment later, the door opened and it revealed Dana, along with everyone else behind her. Chloe gave them a sheepish wave. 

The cheerleader was about to say something until her eyes drifted down to Chloe's chest, her expression immediately changing from concerned to a flash of surprise. "Chloe! What the hell?" 

"Whoa whoa whoa," the hipster exclaims, putting her hands up as she steps away from Dana's attempt to touch her scar. "You want me in pain or something? Gee, you see a massive scar on someone and the first thing you do is touch it," she mumbles, using her forearm to cover the stubbing cut as she went inside. There wasn't a point in hiding it though, everyone already saw. 

Her friends stepped aside to allow her to move in, everyone's head tracking her movement. They all shared the same worried face. 

Before anyone had the chance to ask, Chloe explained the situation as soon as she stepped foot in the room. "David and I had a fight which lead him not wanting to take me to Blackwell so Joyce offered, we had a heated argument about the situation in the car and Joyce didn't see she was heading straight to a car, she swerved to the side of the road on instinct, got this rad scar from the seatbelt, had a breakdown about my dad after that for God-knows-how-long, and we went along our merry way." She turned around with the heel of her foot to face her friends. "Questions, comments, or concerns?" 

She explained it rather fast so the whole group took a second to process it all before Warren hesitantly raised his hand. 

Chloe points at him. "Yes, Warren?" 

"What did you two fight about?" 

"I called Joyce by her name, he got pissed." 

"What—" 

"Anyway, case is closed, already auctioned the question away, we going to watch a movie or not?" 

"I—you never said there was a limit!" Dana states. 

"I don't want to be here all night doing a Q&A on this." Chloe grabbed a deserted bucket of half-eaten popcorn from the group and ate shoved a hand-full of popcorn in her mouth, her words now muffled. "I came here to have fun, not be interrogated. You can ask some questions here and there, just don't throw the whole damn stock on me all at once. 

Now," Chloe continues after a moment of silence, plopping the paper pail back on the floor. "What'd I miss?" 

Seeing that Chloe didn't want any medical attention on her at the moment, Dana casually teased, "Ah, just gushing about the new transfer student. I swear, we're like an un-official fan club for her at this point." 

"What's new with her?" Chloe sat down crisscrossed on the floor, and all of her friends followed suit afterwards, making a circle. 

"Rumors say that the Queen Bee of Blackwell got a nice bucket of paint poured on her head, just this morning," Steph says in a pleased voice. "Theorists say that it was a particular punk." 

"Not really a rumor if there's evidence," Warren butts in, propping his upper-body up with his behind him. "The paint is still there on the stairs where her and her posse hangs around. 

Rumor also says that someone broke into Nathan's dorm room. And I can confirm that it was the new student 'cause Mikey and I saw her come out." 

Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Really? From the way you guys are talking about her, it almost feels like she's a ghost or some legend." 

"Why say that?" 

"Probably because I've only heard rumors about her. Never seen her yet. 

But anyway, did she say anything to you guys?" 

Mikey shakes his head. "Not really, no. But she just... smiled at us and put a finger to her mouth before sneaking back out." 

Chloe gave a teasing low whistle. "Mysterious." 

"Right?" Steph says, a little excited. "She's like the Blackwell Ninja; an unsung hero to the outcast." 

"We're all a fan of whoever this person is, but..." Brooke smirks, glancing at Steph, putting her hand on the side of her mouth so that Steph couldn't see and did a stage whisper to the rest of the group. "…  _I think some of us are a little more excited whenever we talk about h_ —" The group suddenly burst into laughter when Steph flicked a piece of popcorn to Brooke's temple. 

"I just appreciate that someone isn't afraid to get tangled up with Vortex is all," Steph tries to defend, but she was grinning. "Can't help but adore someone like that." 

"I guess I understand why  _you_  guys are more fan-girly for this chick," Brooke comments, picking up the piece of popcorn Steph threw at her and popped it into her mouth. "I'm pretty good at dodging the Vortex Club, so it doesn't really affect me. But I know how much of an asshole they can be, so I can give credit where credit is due." 

"You guys haven't caught her name yet?" Chloe questions. 

"Juliet is one of the  _nosiest_  people in this school," Dana comments, "and even  _she_ hasn't heard anything yet. She tried asking Principal Wells too, but he said it was  _'private information,'"_ Dana air quotes, sounding unconvinced. "Since when the hell were names private?" 

"Maybe she asked them to keep it private," Mikey suggests, "for God-knows-what, but that's the only reasonable answer I have at the moment." 

"Even so, he'd probably slip the information to the stuck-up kids he favors," Chloe says. 

Brooke offered a penny for her thoughts as well. "Either she got a sugar daddy or there are kids around that actually know her name, but for some reason they're not sharing." 

"Maybe she threatened them?" 

Steph scoffs. " _Please,_  Mikey." 

"What? I'm just laying out the options. And how would you know she wouldn't be the type of person to do that? Geez, you're acting like you know her, Steph." 

"Maybe her parents personally know Wells," Dana peacefully offers, ignoring the disagreement the two had. "Or, shit, maybe even  _her."_  

"So she personally knows Wells somehow, " Chloe thoughtfully says, trying to put the pieces together, "and asked him to not leak out her name. Because she has a connection with him, or her parents do, he'd be more loyal to keep that information secure." 

"Well put, Price," Steph comments. 

"But the question now is  _why?_ " 

The group fell silent after Chloe's question, thinking about the possibilities before Brooke interrupted after 3 seconds. 

"Are we done theorizing yet? I was promised a movie and a cute little bunny." 

Chloe sighs, lightly laughing. "I was promised as well. And to be certain: none of you guys have seen Final Destination 3 yet, have you?" 

The group nonconsecutively shook their head, some of them mumbling a  _no._  

"It's a scary movie though, right?" Mikey asks, his voice shaking the slightest bit. "I don't do well with scary movies." 

"Even better!" Chloe exclaims, suddenly excited. "But don't worry; shit's  _brutal._ It's more gory than scary." 

"That's even worse!" 

"For you, at least," Chloe snickers. "Don't  _worrryyy_ , Mikey Spidikey, you got friends to cling on while you cry." 

" _Chloe._ " 

"Aw come on, you'd willingly come here in Kate's room when you  _know_  that you aren't allowed in the girl's dormitory, but you won't watch some corny ass scary movie? You have some weird balls, man." 

"Ya had to peer pressure the guy, Chloe?" Dana moves to the laptop finding an illegal movie site to watch the film on. "Leave him be." 

"It's not like he can go anywhere outside the dorm, either," Steph comments. "He's either going to be a stubborn rat or give up and watch it with us. His choice." 

"You guys are talking like I'm not here," the boy mumbles. "Fine though. Whatever." 

They all migrated near Dana, squeezing in with one another to get a good look on the tiny laptop screen. 

"Didn't you try to find a site when you guys were waiting for me?" 

"Yeah, but that one kept buffering. We tried watching the movie without you, but Steph guilt-tripped us into waiting," Dana smirked.  

"Unlike you guys,  _I_  am a loyal and patient friend." 

"No need to rub it in," Brooke says, sounding playfully derisive. It got the group to lightly laugh. 

"I think I got a website. Quick, Price: get Alice! And a carrot!" Dana dramatically exclaims, pointing at the cage. 

Chloe just softly chuckled and scooped up the rabbit along with the carrot that was inside her cage. She softly settled Alice down in Dana's lap, since she was in the smack center of the screen, and passed the carrot to her. 

After grabbing the popcorn left around the ground to give them to her friends, she settled down next to Dana, laying on her front and resting her head on the top of Dana's thigh. 

Once the movie started, Dana fed Alice the tip of the carrot and the rabbit nibbled on it. She then jokingly put the carrot to Chloe's mouth next, and laughed when Chloe nibbled at it the same way Alice did. 

Her laugh caused Chloe to laugh as well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chloe and david's relationship improved, but there are still obvious flaws
> 
> tell me mistakes ive made so that i can correct them! thx  
> also, please tell me im funny


	3. you have layers beyond layers to uncover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Vortex Club member's mischievous expressions flickered to a soft, deadpan look. They were on their way to The Triple E's location, but they stopped dead on their tracks, suddenly seeming uncertain. From afar, it looked like the club was staring at them but, 
> 
> They were looking behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot to mention this, but warren's dnd character is named Gorkanon and he's an orc that's basically acts like the hulk

 

When the gang was done with the movie, Warren and Mikey said their goodnights afterwards and sneaked back to their dorms while the girls chatted up a storm before calling it a night. Or, morning, considering that they decided to actually sleep around 3 A.M. 

They rambled mostly about anything that came to mind while simultaneously cleaning up Kate's room and playing with Alice, but Steph roped them back to the topic of the new transfer student.  

 _"And uh, while we're on the topic about weird...events," Steph hesitates, clearing her throat. "Have any idea why the transfer student wants to meet up with you, Chloe?"_  

 _Chloe would groan about the topic of this girl resurfacing again, but seeing Steph dither about whether or not to bring her back up again, she decided against it_ _—Brooke did it for her anyway_ _. "Justin probably mentioned our club and said something about me that made me sound important."_  

 _"She sounds interested," Steph says. She sounded a little hopeful._  

 _"In joining? One in a million chance." Chloe sounded a little ruder than she intended, but she didn't correct herself. "She'll_ _probably_ _buddy up with Justin and the pranksters or just be independent, riling up the club by herself; seems like she's_ _a_ _one-woman_ _army._  

 _And who knows, she can be a total dick and just fuck everybody except herself."_  

 _"Not...reassuring, but realistic at least," Dana slowly says, careful to choose her words. "But... hasn't Justin met her?"_  

 _Chloe does a little nod. "I think that's what he said, yeah."_  

 _"Wouldn't he know her name? Or something about her at least?"_  

 _"Yeah, but he only said that she was surprisingly quiet." Chloe tried throwing popcorn into the air and catching it with her mouth, only to have it land on her nose. "_ Fuck _._ _But, uh, yeah;_ _Justin_ _won't tell me anything else I don't think."_  

 _"Have you tried?" Steph pushes._  

 _"I asked what her name was, but he just said that I'll find out later."_  

 _"I doubt he even knows her name," Brooke bets. "He just said that so it_ _implies_ _that he knows. I got 5 bucks on me."_  

 _Steph empties out her pockets and an overly-folded_ _, worn out_ _10-dollar bill falls out from her right front pocket. "Whatever. Give me the change later."_  

 _"It's 3 in the morning though," Chloe interrupts. "Is Justin even awake?"_  

 _Dana utters a_   _tsk_.  _"Please, it's_ Justin _. He's probably smoking weed right now though, but he'll answer you; just not quickly."_  

 _"We can do other shit while we wait then."_  

 _"Anyone_ _want_ _to_ _uhh_ _," Brooke says, skimming through Kate's bookshelf. "… read the Bible?"_  

 _The whole group stayed silent for a moment._  

 _"Sure," "Yeah," "I'm down," they all say almost_ _synchronously, making a semi-circle around Brooke._  

 _"Spoiler alert, Jesus dies."_  

 _"That's a low blow, Scott."_  

 _"_ _Listen here_ _,_ Gingrich,"  _Brooke calls out, saying Steph's name in_ _disgust and earning a laugh from the group. "If you wanted to avoid spoilers you should've read it back in 1611. Now shut up and let me read."_  

 _Brooke dramatically clears her throat, straightening her back and flips to the book of_ _Genesis_ _. She reads until the story of Noah's Ark and purposefully avoids looking at Kate's sticky notes._  

 

 

Chloe received a text notification in the middle of the night. 

After getting blinded and groaning from the beaming light her phone screen immitted, she rubbed her eyes to wipe out her blurry vision. 

Seeing who it was from, Chloe rotates to her other side to reach down and poke Steph, who was sleeping next to Kate's bed on the floor. 

 _"Steph,"_ Chloe whispers, causing the said-girl to stir and quietly grumble. 

Steph flinches when Chloe suddenly shined the light on her. Without whining, she blindly pats the ground next to her to find her glasses. After she found and wore them, she then blinked a couple times to wash out some blur out of her vision and squinted at the conversation Chloe was showing her. 

 

 

 

 **_You started a new conversation with do a_ ** **_tre_ ** **_-_ ** **_flip!._ ** **** **[3:00 A.M.]**  

 

 

 

 

> **_me:_** justin 

**_Chat has been idle for 10 minutes..._ **  

 

 

 

 

> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Beaver . 
> 
> **_me:_** hey dipshit, do u even *kno* her name 

**_Chat has been idle for 3_** ** _4_ ** **_minutes..._ **  

 

 

 

 

> **_do a_** ** _tre_** ** _-_** ** _flip!:_** Haha No 

 

 

 

Steph plops back down on her bedroll, sighing. 

 _"Fuck."_  

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Today was The Triple E's meeting and coincidentally, no one wanted to get up. 

Chloe's body felt heavier than usual and Kate's sheets were softer than she remembered. She could easily sink back into another peaceful slumber and no one would blame her for it. Steph probably preferred it that way. 

But if she's not getting up, then no one is. 

Chloe huffs, and before she could think about regretting to put the meeting together, she threw her sheets to the side. She felt instant regret when the freezing room temperature gnawed on her bare legs and any bare skin showing. 

" _Hey!_  What the fuck, Chloe?" A muffled voice says below her. 

Steph emerges from the seat of thick blankets she was engulfed from and immediately covered her skin from the cold climate. " _God it's cold_ _—_ what the hell was that for?" 

Chloe looks down at her and shrugs. "Two birds one stone. Up and at 'em, we got a long day ahead." 

Steph sighs, but doesn't make a move to stand up. "Yeah, I know," she mumbles. 

Chloe forced herself to stand up, feeling imbalanced. She lifts her head to take a quick glance and her companions to find out that Brooke was still sound asleep on the couch and Dana was on Kate's desk, scrolling through her phone. 

"Hey," Chloe calls to Dana, "how long have you been up?" 

Noticing that she's being talked to, Dana's attention transferred to the hipster. "Half an hour." 

"You didn't bother to wake us up?" 

Dana shrugs, flinging her arms up. "Dunno, thought you'd appreciate the extra Z's, I was going to let you guys sleep until around 11. You guys don't wake up as early as I do." 

"Not even in another timeline," Brooke groans from the couch, her face facing the back supporter of the sofa. 

Apparently Chloe wasn't the only person surprised since Dana cocked an eyebrow at Brooke's back. "And how long have  _you_  been awake?" 

"I don't know, close to a minute?" Brooke answers as she turns her front to us "Steph screamed pretty loud, even under blankets." 

Steph blushed. "Oh. Sorry." 

"Mhm. 

Anyway, what time is it?" 

Dana checked her phone. "9:48." 

"Did you get breakfast already, Day?" Chloe asks. 

"No. C'mon, we can probably beat those Vortex Club snots to the punch." 

 

 

Luckily, the Vortex Club beat them to the punch. 

And it wasn't sarcasm this time. 

 

 

 

The group traveled together in a lose square, talking amongst themselves and lost in their own world. They paid a little attention to their environment though to avoid getting in people's way or bumping into others.  They jump from topic to topic, talking about how Mikey kept hiding under his hands when he was watching Final Destination 3 and also shared their likes and dislikes of the movie, but mostly mocked it. 

"I could feel Warren and Mikey tense up every time there were tits on screen," Chloe snorts, shaking her head. "It was  _so_  awkward for them." 

"And  _you_ ," Dana firmly points at Chloe, "Ms. Lesbian, were excited as all hell; I think you even drooled on my pants." 

"You really going to complain about a tiny drop of saliva on your precious jeans? You can't even see the stain at this point anyway." 

The cheerleader's eyes widened. "Wow, I was joking on that part. But why am I surprised?" 

Time felt sped up every time the group laughed, and because of that, they reached their destination sooner than they thought. 

Dana used her back to open one of the double doors that lead to the cafeteria and opened the door wide enough for her friends to get in. 

But they all quickly dispersed when they heard heavy, hurried footsteps. 

"Shit, look out!" Steph puts her arm in front of Chloe and pushed her out of the way since her reaction time wasn't as sharp as Steph's was in the moment. The moment after _—_ the moment _right after_ _—_ Steph pushed her away, A blur of red burst into the door Dana didn't hold open and zoomed passed the front exit of the school within a  _blink_. Their feet were close to sounding mute that Steph was almost convinced she was hallucinating. 

Following after the person were two bulky guys the group realizes that were in the Vortex Club and the football team; one had blonde hair and the other jet black. It was hard to tell if they were faster than the person they were trying to catch, but they sure as hell weren't as quiet as they were. But they too, were also gone within a flash. 

Brooke was the first one to react and she quickly followed after the chase; she  _gravitates_  toward drama. Almost concomitantly, the group followed Brooke to check and see what was happening. 

Even before Brooke managed to open the front entrance, there was already a scream and a wet splashing sound.  The only thing Brooke saw was the aftermath; the jocks were  _covered_  with white paint, blindly running for a few seconds before tumbling over each other on the grass with a grunt. There was a bucket of white paint not far from where the jocks landed; it looked like it was hastily tossed aside. The person who they were chasing _—_ Brooke guesses it's a girl with the petite frame and feminine shape she could make out from afar _—_ was already rounding the corner of where the parking lot was at. 

 _Jesus Christ, that girl is a cheetah,_ Brooke thought, her mouth agape. 

"I can't see!" the jet-black jock exclaimed, rolling off of the other boy "Fuck, that whore got away again!" 

"Y'know, Chris," the blonde one says, obviously irritated, "for someone who can't see, you're  _fucking_  observant." 

"Shut your goddamn mouth." Both of the guys tried wiping off the paint with their hands, not noticing that they're spreading it farther along their jackets. "Hey! Someone bring us a towel before we dry!" 

The rest of the situation wasn't as intriguing anymore so Steph went in front of the group with slow, suspenseful steps, wearing an expression that looks like she saw Santa Claus on early Christmas morning flying on reindeers when she didn't believe in him. 

"Guys..." She says in a quiet voice, but the excitement contained behind her voice could be heard. A grin slowly crept her way into her mouth. "Did you _—_ just? Like _—_ did that just..." 

"Happen?" Dana finishes. She had the same flabbergasted expression. "Yeah. I was just about to ask that too." 

"That was..." Brooke slowly rotated towards the group, her voice trying to sound deadpan but it was laced with a bit of shock; it was like she was trying to remain cool, but she's doing a  _terrible_  job at it. Compared to the other two girls, her expression was the calmest, with her eyes sizing to the shape of plates. "...exciting." 

"No doubt that was the transfer student," Chloe says in a distant voice, looking at the two jocks. 

"Dude, no doubt that was a fucking _superhuman_ ," Dana almost interrupts. "She covered like, 30 or more meters in a matter of  _seconds_." 

"Look let's just..." Chloe shakes her head as if she just got out of a trance. "We can discuss all of this on a full stomach, Capeesh?" She herds the group into the building, flicking her hands to gesture them to move along. 

They all backed up and moved quietly to the cafeteria, no one saying a single word until Brooke, as always, breaks the silence. 

"By the way," Brooke says in that signature deadpan voice she always carries. She sharply turns her head to Steph. "You owe me 5." 

 

 

 

"Mikey, can you hurry it up?" Warren says, trying to speak over the ruckus happening from the other side,  _inside,_ of Mikey's dorm room but also trying to be respectful of people sleeping in. He makes rapid dull knocks on the door with the side of his palm. "I think the girls are already at the cafeteria!" 

 _"Can you just give me a minute, please?!"_ Mikey harshly replies in a voice barely above a whisper. Warren could tell he was flush up against his door on the other side based on how clear he could hear him. 

Now that he knew Mikey was near, he lowered his voice to the same volume as his'. "You said that last time! And last time was like,  _15 minutes ago!"_  

 _"Then give me like a..."_ Warren can hear shuffling through the door; Mikey was struggling with something.  _"A_ minute  _minute_ _."_  

"What the hell does that supposed to mean?" 

 _"Like a-a-a-a a_ real _minute! I'm just...struggling with this belt."_  

"For 15 minutes?" 

 _"Dude, I_ just _got my pants on, don't get your panties all up in a twist."_  

Warren rolls his eyes, leaning on the door with his shoulder, crossing his arms. "Yeah? How long is  _this_  going to talk you? 20 tops?" 

Warren was laughing to himself on how funny he thought he was until, mid-laugh, the door suddenly opens, causing him to fall side-ways into Mikey's dorm. "Whoa!" 

Mikey quickly side-steps to avoid Warren's head from hitting his shoes. His face flickered from shock to pleased all in one second.  

"10 seconds actually," the boy says, a hint of smug in his voice. He offered his hand nonetheless and Warren takes it, rubbing the back of his head. "Now come on, I'm  _famished!"_  

Mikey didn't even wait to check to see if Warren was tailing him, running off as if one of them said that the last one there was a rotten egg. "Look who's talking now," Warren mumbles to himself, lightly jogging to the exit of the boy's dormitories. 

 

 

He'd thought that Mikey would be way ahead of him, probably already in the cafeteria, but Warren caught sight of him peaking around a corner, his body still as a statue and seemingly intrigued with what he saw, seeing how leaned in he was from the corner. 

Warren knows how jumpy Mikey can get, so he purposefully drags his feet along the concrete to let Mikey know that he was behind him. Mikey was still a little startled when he heard it and quickly turned his head around, but he immediately relaxed when he saw Warren and went back to looking where he originally was. 

"What? See any babes with breasts?" Warren jokes, putting his hands inside his pockets. None of both were a head taller than the other, so Warren had a hard time trying to peak around in the same area when Mikey was standing in the way. 

Seeing Warren struggle in finding a comfortable spot to peak as well, Mikey crouches. "Nah. It might be better though." 

Instead of asking, Warren squints at what appears to be Principal Wells lambasting two blokes that were covered with white paint. Based off their jacket alone, Warren knew that they were football players. and based off the back of their head, he could also tell that they were from the Vortex Club. The jet-black haired jock was named Chris and the blonde dude was some guy he sees around the campus. 

"Wells, getting angry at the Vortex Club?" Warren says, sounding a little unconvinced. "Pinch me, I must be dreaming." 

Mikey went to go pinch him but Warren slowly lowered the boy's hand with his palm, his eyes not leaving the scenario. 

"Shouldn't we be getting breakfast?" 

"Mikey, you were the one who stopped here to snoop and—okay, just... come on. We can eavesdrop on what they're saying on the way inside." 

 

 

 

"—Look, can you just clean up the mess you've made?" Wells says, aggravated. "How hard is it to mop the floor? Do you help your mother around the house?" 

Warren and Mikey purposefully slowed their pace subtly, typing out random letters in their notepads to make it look like they're texting. 

"We're just wondering why  _we_  have to do it, sir," Chris replies in that oh so gentleman voice. "Isn't it the janitor's job?" 

"You confessed into making this mess and now  _you_  have to clean in." The sudden raise in volume had an obvious effect on Wells' head, seeing that he held his temple and lowered his voice the second time he spoke. "I expected better from you Chris. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think you'd end up doing something like this. And you—" he points to the blonde boy and freezes, hesitating. "Uh... hm. I don't remember your name..." 

"Oh, my name's—" 

"Blah, blah, blah, " Wells mocks, making a hand puppet. "Just go do what I told you to do already. God, you're making my hangover more of a living nightmare that it already was," he mumbles the last sentence, rubbing his forehead as he enters the school. The jocks also leave, an audible loud groan coming from one of them. 

"Fuck this school," was the last thing Warren and Mikey heard from Chris before entering the Blackwell. 

"They confessed into doing wrong doings?" Warren thinks out loud, the surprise evident on his face. "The hell is happening?" 

"I don't know," Mikey answers, even though he knew it was a rhetorical question. "But I'm not going to question it. It seems like it's for the better." 

"Better knock on wood after that." 

 

 

 

 _"_ _Heeeey_ _,_ ladies!" Warren enters, causing the group of girls to divert their attention to him and Mikey. They were all sitting next to each other in a line. "You can _not_  believe what we just heard!" 

"Yeah?" Brooke says, sounding unconvinced. "Well, you can _not_  believe what we just saw." 

"Oh yeah? Let's swap then." The boys took their seats in front of the group, gently placing their trays on the table. "No bets though. Summarize it for us first." 

"We saw the ninja herself in action; took two jocks down with paint." 

"She was fast as  _fuck_ , too. She was gone, just like  _that_ ," Chloe snaps. 

"Wait,  _she_  did that?" Mikey questions, tilting his head. "But they confessed into doing it themselves." 

"Wait, they _what?"_  

"Yeah! Principal Wells was talking to them about a minute ago. Based off of context, they said that they did it themselves." 

"Well, we know that  _that_  ain't true." 

"Wells, interrogating the Vortex Club?" Dana questions, perplexed and in complete shock. "And to think that they were under his protection..." 

"This is all  _way_  too good to be true," Chloe mumbles. "And it's all happening just because of  _one_  girl? What's next, the Vortex Club completely leaving us alone?" 

Steph laughs. "Oh, how I pray for  _that_  day to come." 

Abruptly, the group stopped talking. Some continued to eat their food, some picked at it, and some just stared at it. It was like they were comprehending the startling changes that happened in a matter of 3 days. 

When the weekend is over, would it be the same? Once the school officially introduces the new student, will things fall apart?  What's so important about her name? It's anticipating to learn who she really is, but scary at the same time. The girl  _was_  trying to keep her name out of people's mouth; is there a good reason behind it though? 

It's not like she can manage do that through the whole school year; she has achieved the preposterous, but not the impossible. 

"Hey," Steph intrudes, snapping everyone away from their daze. "What's the time?" 

"10:19. Why?" 

"...want to start that meeting early?" 

 

 

 

Dana separated from the group to hang out with Juliet and Taylor, saying her goodbyes and wished them a good luck before departing. 

Brooke decided to attend the meeting. 

"What made you change your mind?" 

She shrugs, adjusting her glasses. "I'm just testing how much fun God would let me have before deciding I had enough and take a big dump on my head. I guess you can say I was inspired with our little story time last night." 

"You had to rope us in with your bad luck then, huh?" Chloe chuckles. 

"Friends do things together; if I'm getting shitted on, I'm dragging you all with me." 

Steph sets up the usual set, sitting across Chloe, Mikey, and Warren and puts a barrier between her and the players. Brooke sits on the table at the side, getting a good angle of both sides. 

"Right so...I'm guessing I missed a lot?" Brooke observes, seeing that Steph laid out a whole new map the players were using as an outline.  

"You left when Chloe, Mikey, and Warren were exploring the dungeon, correct?" 

"I think so?" 

"Well, long story short: they found Kapral, the giant snake boss, and they're barely alive but Elamon escapes to resupply. He comes back to the dungeon to find that his companions weren't killed but they were captured so he goes on this mission to find them. Callamastia and Garkanon are also trying to escape and they're pretty pissed and Elamon at the moment, so I'm curious to see how the reunion goes." 

Mikey groans. "Ugh. I'm not." 

"We're going to mess you up harder than Kapral did to all of us  _combined_  my dude," Warren laughs, giving his companion pats on the back. 

"Are they close to meeting each other?" Brooke asks. 

"They're pretty close. They're probably going to meet this—" 

 _"Shit."_  

The group suddenly eyes Chloe, who diverted her eyes to the ground. "Chloe? What's wrong?" 

"I think I looked at them." 

Brooke panics. "You _what?"_  

"Chloe, you literally broke the 1st rule in our implied imaginary book," Mikey criticizes, harshly whispering. 

"It was a quick glance, I'm sorry! I thought they'd yell at us at this point and I was just looking to see if they were there—" 

"Wait." Steph was directly lookin at them, putting a hand in front of Chloe and Mikey to indicate them to stop. "They're...not coming?" 

The Vortex Club member's mischievous expressions flickered to a soft, deadpan look. They were on their way to The Triple E's location, but they stopped dead on their tracks, suddenly seeming uncertain. From afar, it looked like the club was staring at them but, 

They were looking behind them. 

"Hey," a voice said behind the players. It was feminine; raspy and deep from most likely the cause of smoking. 

Everyone's head sharply turned to the voice. Once the group spotted her, she halted her pace, staring back with an impassive look on her face. 

Her expression was unmoving and her eyes drifted to the contents on the table The Triple E's were using. She nodded her head towards it. 

"That DnD?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chris and the blonde guy is going to be a running joke through this story now lol
> 
> and i like writing brooke i have SOO much fun with her dialogue
> 
> sorry for the useless banter (idk why i apologized, i just felt like i needed to) but i'm doing that so that you can kinda get attached to the versions of the characters that i write? y'know how people write characters differently. idk, hope yall like em
> 
> help me improve by telling me my mistakes and what i should work on!
> 
> also, i'm thinking about an upload schedule of tuesday and thurs, but don't hold me to it bc god im really bad at following my own schedules


	4. you're a mystery made for me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justin was right; she's surprisingly quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [i'm working on an illustration of what max looks like, so i'll provide a link next chapter!!]
> 
> ok so u remember that schedule i did?? tues and thurs?? imma change the thurs into a friday, lol
> 
> and i had hella fun writing this, especially the D&D session

She had freckles dissipating all over her face that were accompanied with ocean blue eyes. The bottom edges of her hair were dyed crimson red, but the roots on top remained a natural brunette color. Her bangs framed her face and her hair was tied up in a tiny pony tail, exposing a faded undercut behind her head. She wore a plain grey t-shirt that was tucked inside of her baggy black joggers; her t-shirt covered a little bit of the top of her faded-black arm tattoo that ran down to the back of her wrist. She also had squeaky clean Nike's sport shoes on: that looked like it was the most expensive from the rest of her outfit. 

Excluding the guys, it was the first time the group ever saw the student in detail instead of a linear blur. 

 _Holy shit,_ were the only two words simulating around Steph's head.  _Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit—_  

The group was in awe, but they were slightly terrified as well; they don't know if she's on their side yet, or no one's at all. They don't know what to expect and they don't know how to treat her. It was also like meeting your idol: you want to impress them, but you don't know how, so you just... awkwardly fiddle with your fingers or stay in shock. 

But they stared at her longer than what was considered comfortable and the new student began to fidget, swaying on her toes. The awkward jaw twitches and flapping mouth of hesitation to utter a word didn't exactly feel like a welcome with open arms to the girl. 

Brooke noticed the awkward body language the student radiated and it was enough to shake her out of her shock. "Oh _—_ uh yeah, it is," she answers a little  _too_  late, but she answered nonetheless. "You play...?" 

The girl crossed her arms, giving a Mona Lisa smile. "A lot, actually. Back in Seattle, at least." 

"Oh shit, really?" Chloe asks, intrigued. "I never caught that vibe." 

"Wouldn't blame you. I know I don't look the type. 

You The Triple E's?" 

"Uh, yes. Justin said that you wanted to meet...?" 

"Um..." The girl suddenly turned stiffed, scratching the freshly shaved hair behind her head; it looked like an instinct. "Yeah, I was just wondering if I could watch. If... that's cool." 

Chloe felt like the girl was more nervous to talk to them than  _they_  were. 

 _Justin was right; she's_ _surprisingly_ _quiet,_  Chloe notes in her head, a little amused. 

After observing the girl's body language, Chloe relaxes, becoming less stiff with her words. "Yeah, s'cool," she replies, her voice sounding less cautious than before and more relaxed. "Justin never said you wanted to talk to the group though; he said you wanted to talk to  _me._ " 

The girl ever so slightly lifted an eyebrow, and that action alone made Chloe wither with embarrassment inside. 

 _Shit. Did I read Justin's text right?_  

"Well, not you in  _particular_ ," the student replies, unconsciously punching Chloe in the guts with every vowel. "When I meant by talking to you, I meant talking to the whole group in general. To ask about... watching." There was that nervous scratch again. "I only said I wanted to talk to  _you_  because he mentioned how you were the one who set up the meetings and everything." 

Chloe coughs inside of her elbow as if she was trying to hack out the blood her self-worth spilled from the girl's explanation. "Oh, uh, his text made it seem so; he should've been clearer on that part." Before the shy punk could unknowingly beat the life out of Chloe's self-worth again with nothing but the tilt of her head, Chloe quickly adds on, "But anyway, we were actually starting our session right now; so uh, come sit." 

"Cool. So, uhm... can you give me a quick summary?" 

Warren jumps in, suddenly acting as if nothing happened and that the punk and him were best friends. "Okay, so, here's  _my_  character..." 

 

 

 

Turns out it was  _not_  a quick summary. At all. 

At this point, everyone got out of their shock from the sudden disruption of the famous Blackwell Ninja wanting to join in on their game. They still felt uneasy though, besides Warren, and Chloe was still recovering from those punches to the gut and went back to square one. 

It was mostly Warren doing all the talking, with the exception of others answering the new girl's questions. She actually looked intrigued with what Warren was saying, nodding along and softly chuckling at the boy's attempt at humor. 

 _OH MY_ GOD _, SHE'S ADORABLE_ _—_  

"Sorry for putting you through this," the girl says in an apologetic tone, subconsciously cutting off Steph's inner dialogue. She scratched her undercut again. "You wasted about 20 minutes tops, probably." 

"No rush. It's not like we have any other plans after this," Chloe jokes, earning a ghostly smile from the girl. "But... is it cool to like, waste more time?" 

She softly scrunched her eyebrows, confused. Her expressions were always so stiff and subtle. "As in...?" 

"Questions. Y'know, since you're... new and all." 

The girl stayed silent, and the group took that as a no the longer she didn't say anything. Chloe was a bit hurt though; rejection stings her, even if it wasn't significant and it always puts a little pink to her cheeks. It can be embarrassing. 

"I choose what to answer then," the student finally decides, snapping everyone's head up to her after they all lowered it when they thought she declined the idea. "Shoot." 

"Oh- u _—_ uh... why'd you decide to transfer here?" 

"Photography program," she summarizes. 

"Oh, so you're a photographer?" Mikey questions next. 

"Sí." 

"Digital or traditional?" 

"Traditional." 

"H-how was it back in Seattle?" Steph speaks up. It looks like she was still comprehending the fact that her idol was hanging out with her. 

Detecting the anxiety behind the voice, the girl looked at Steph, which did more damage than good since Steph was practically sweating at this point. The girl tried soothing whatever was worrying Steph with a small smile that was strong enough to define a cheek dimple and Steph basically melted at this point. 

 _Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god_ _—_  

 _Cheek dimples?_ Brooke notes.  _She only gets cuter and cuter,_  she jokes in a voice heavily dumped in sarcastic deadpan. 

"All right. Though I really didn't have much friends and I hung out with a bad crowd that made me into..." She gestures at herself. "… another delinquent, I guess. 

I learned how to do street art through them though, so I don't _—_ well, I don't regret meeting them  _just_ because of that. Nice bunch, but they had a bad message." 

"Bad message?" 

"Pass." 

"Hm. Favorite animal?" 

"Deer." 

"Color?" 

"Red." 

"Sport?" 

"Track." 

"Subject?" 

"Art." 

"Music genre?" 

"Alternative." 

"Really?" 

The girl glances at Warren, slightly raising her eyebrow. "Punk, rock, and metal, too." 

"Oh." Warren scratches his temple, realizing he was being stereotypical. "Sorry." 

"Hey, you were right anyway." 

Warren continues with his simple rapid-fire questions. "Favorite food?" 

"Ramen, I guess." 

"Type?" 

"Chicken." 

"Drink?" 

"Gatorade?" 

"Movie?" 

"Bladerunner." 

"Name...?" 

Chloe was working the courage to ask that ever since Warren started his rampage and everyone's heads were turned to her now. It was like a spotlight was being casted upon her, but that wasn't Chloe's problem: it was everyone's surprised stare, as if asking her name was something forbidden. 

 _Uh, did_ _I do something wrong...?_  

It was evident that the student would pass this question. And sure, it might make Chloe a little embarrassed when the girl rejects answering, but it was something worth attempting. Chloe knew it was in everyone's head. 

The silent wasn't that long, but it would be expected for the girl to say pass already. Surprisingly enough, she looked like she was actually pondering the question, squinting down on the table as if it was carved on it but it was written with bad handwriting. 

"Uh. For the record, Blade Runner is also my favorite movie," Chloe intrudes, trying to squeeze in a little noise in the silence.  

The girl softly chuckled through her nose and roped the conversation back to the question. "Cool if I give you like... 1/3 of an answer?" 

The group all rose their eyebrows in unison, startling the girl a little from how in sync it was. Of course, they weren't expecting an answer. 

"Better than nothing," Chloe accepts. 

"Max." 

Even though she agreed to answering the question, the group thought she was bluffing; at least a little. So it was still a shock that she actually shared some of her name, which she  _kept hidden_  from everyone else for some reason. 

The thrill of uncovering a mystery was short-lived after the group realized something and slumped their shoulders down. The abrupt sulked expression the posse wore bemused Max, but the realization hit her quick enough that she didn't need to ask what was wrong. 

She felt some-what peer pressured into doing this but nonetheless, she hesitantly added, "Uh... well... I  _go_  by Max, but my real name is actually Maxine." 

Their mopey look suddenly gyrated into a content one and Max rolled her eyes. 

"You guys with your E's..." 

 

 

 

 _"My dear friends!_ _Let us not shed blood from each other over petty decisions, the past is long gone; we can only move forward!"_  

Mikey shakes the dice trapped inside his hands with bated breath, shaking it longer than usual before releasing it on the table. He leans in to take a look, along with the others. 

 _"What?!_ Are you kidding me?" He exclaims, the top face of the dice leaving him bewildered. "Not even my +3 Charisma Boost would help me!" 

Max does a low whistle, amused. "You have some luck to get a 1 in a situation like this." 

Warren laughs, "Me too! Aw, thanks for that Mikey!" He clears his throat before getting into character.  _"Wizard man left_ _Garkanon_ _and angry elf to die! Wizard man_ _a coward_ _!"_  

Chloe smirks, feigning an apologetic face to Mikey. "Sorry man; learn your lesson next time though." 

 _Callamastia_ _unsheathes her axe from her hip, twisting it mid-air before snarling her fangs. "Ever wondered how that human kabob_ _looked like? You're about to find out once I stick your pathetic twig of a_ staff _in your throat and roast you alive under a fire!"_  

Mikey's eyes almost popped out from his head from the number that showed on the dice Chloe rolled. "A 17?! What the hell, this is rigged!" 

Chloe pumped her fist, clapping from the thrill of a lucky roll. "Haha! Piss your pants already, Eladork." 

Mikey growled, rubbing his forehead. 

 _The hero was quivering under the stare of his angered teammates, t_ _he_ _sweat surfacing from his skin made him hot and itchy all over. "I made a rational decision, I could not risk the chance of dying, I came as quickly as I could to come rescue you! Please, you must spare me!"_  

 _"Warriors do not back down_ _from_ _a fight!" Garkanon roared, pulling out the giant pillar behind his back as he charges into a rage and attempts to smash the wizard. —_  

"Damn!" Warren ejaculates, smashing his fist down the table as Mikey breathed a sigh of relief _—_ it was a 6. 

After hearing Warren's exclamation, he whips to him, genuinely offended. "You wanted to squish me?" 

"It was...instinct." Warren sheepishly smiles. 

 _—_ _The action was so sudden that_ _Elamon_ _didn't have time to teleport into another area, but he was quick enough to roll away from the impact, a little debris scratching his robe. He backs away, still unmotivated to fight his fellow peers. "I do not wish to fight you!"_  

 _Callamastia_ _chose not to wait to listen to the mage's words and instead threw her_   _axe_ _—_  

"Heh, 16!" 

"Dammit! You've basically crippled me!" 

Chloe gave her frenemy a smug smile, examining her nails like it was no big deal. "What can I say _—_ _"_ she puffs into her fingers, rubbing them into her shirt afterwards, " _—_ I'm a hotshot." 

"Don't you have a spell to divert items thrown at you back to the person?" Max questions, tilting her head. 

"W... what?" 

"A deflecting spell," Max clarifies. "I'd assume you would." 

Mikey still felt ambivalent with Max and couldn't believe that she was talking to him, so his tongue dried up a little. "Uh, I probably do..." He looks at his character sheet and scrolls a little until a sudden smile across his face. 

Chloe purses her lips.  _Dammit, Max._  

"I guess I do!" When he rolls, his smile only got wider. 18. 

"Fuck! Really?" 

Max and Mikey chuckled, the girl raising her hand for a high five. Mikey hesitantly gives, but he grins when he saw Max smirk. 

"Take my place now, would'ja?" Brooke interjects, simpering. 

Max only shrugged, giving her the same expression. 

"Wait, doesn't that mean I have to roll to see if I dodged the axe in time?" 

"I guess so, but you must have some  _massive_  reflects if you could dodge that close range." 

 _"Pfft,"_ Chloe dismisses, a little cocky. "Please, I have the reflex of a fucking _—_ _fuck."_  

Brooke snickers, seeing the face of the dice _—_ _13._ "I'm sorry, the reflex of a what?" She mocks, lending her ear to Chloe. 

Chloe only rolled her eyes and pulled Brooke's ear, making the group snicker. 

 _—_ _but she_ _instead sees her own weapon_ _ricochet and_ _veer_ _right into her shoulder._ _—_  

"Wait, which end hits my shoulder?" 

"Uh," Steph stutters, quickly thinking. "Since 16 and 13 are quite near each other, I'm guessing the blunt end." 

Chloe breathes a sigh of relief. "Okay, cool." 

 _—The blunt side may have hit her, but the speed the item accumulated from close range made up for what it lacked and cause a stomach-churning_ crack  _on impact._ ** _[_** ** _Callamastia's_** ** _non-dominant arm is now immobilized unless necessary.]_**  

"Wait, what the hell?! Might as well hit me with the damn blade!" 

"You want the blade of your axe to hit your shoulder with the  _same speed?_ " Steph deadpans. 

Chloe nervously laughs, adopting that same nervous instinct Max does with her undercut and scratched the nape of her neck. "You know I'm  _kiddinggg_." 

 

 

 

"You ain't mad at us are you Mikey?" 

"No." But he huffs, avoiding eye contact with his two former teammates. "You didn't kill me which I'm glad, but you basically left me for dead by taking all my stuff." 

Max elbows Mikey while her hands were in her pockets. "She prevented you from becoming soup at least." 

"Okay, I was  _only_  doing what was logical for my character to do," Warren defends, "I swear I didn't  _want_  to kill Mikey!" 

Chloe lightly punches the boy's shoulder. "You're lucky that I was somewhat level-headed to stop you from puréeing him." 

Mikey sighs, his head shamefully bowed. "Can't believe I teamed up with rage-inducing, blood thirsty barbarians..." 

"Your luck will turn someday, Mikey-boy," Brooke slightly comforts. But then she smirks. "But I hope that isn't soon, because that fight was damn entertaining." Steph gave a thumbs up as if she was agreeing to that. 

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Why am I the punching bag of this group?" 

"You're fun to tease. Duh. 

But anyway... It's lunch time, isn't it? Anyone want to grab a bite?" Steph asks as she stands up, stretching her legs. 

Chloe held her hand up and shook it a little. "I'll catch up in a bit. You might want to grab your stuff though, wouldn't want it stolen." 

"Oh, right. Then I'll be catching up too. I'll meet you guys in the cafeteria?" 

They all nod, going in their separate ways until the only ones left in the area was Chloe and Max. 

After waving goodbye to everyone, both of the girls quickly settled in an awkward silence. Though, it was mostly felt on Chloe's end more than Max's, since the said-girl was staring off into space with her back turned on the taller girl. 

 _She probably doesn't even know I'm here._  

Wanting to get rid of the discomfort she felt from the silence, Chloe tentatively coughs into her fist to get the girl's attention. It wasn't a sudden snap to reality so Max slowly turned her head. 

After locking eyes, the rehearsed words Chloe had in mind went out the window, and all she could do at the moment was bob her jaw. "I-I uh.. Er..." She clears her throat and that seemed to clear her head as well. After properly composing herself, she continues. "Thanks for coming. I'm guessing you've heard the beef going on between us and the Vortex Club already." 

"… Bits and pieces." 

"Yeah, well, we've never had any proper fun with them breathing down our necks all the time; they're a pain in the  _ass_. 

At least you were here to keep them at bay for today. We haven't gone ham in a D&D session in a  _really_  long time." 

Instead of replying, Max allowed a moment of silence to disrupt the flow of the conversation and turned her head back to the front. Chloe could almost see the gears running in her head, processing what she had said. 

But after some time has passed, it was clear that Max was done with the conversation. 

Chloe pursed her lips.  _I guess that's the end of that._ She didn't know if she should strike another conversation or not, it's not like she had another topic to pull off from the top of her head. But she saw the little butterfly tattoo in the nape of Max's neck and thought it could be a nice conversation starter. 

Chloe was about to compliment it until Max beat her to the chase. "Do you have a dorm around here?" 

She had to reel back before answering. "Oh. Uh, no, I stay with my parents." 

"How is it?" 

"Fine... most of the time. I don't want to go back any time soon though." 

"Got a choice?" 

"None that I liked, so I made my own." The punk softly chuckled at that. "I'll just ask my friends to see if I can spend the night. They might not be as willing since the weekend is over, but I'll find someone. 

If not, I can always just go to Kate's room. Or maybe ask Warren or Mikey if I'm desperate enough." 

"You  _really_  want to avoid going home, huh?" 

Chloe shrugs, even though Max couldn't see that. "What can I say; I'm as stubborn as it gets. I'll come around eventually." 

Max hums and doesn't say anything afterwards, going back to her own little world again. 

 _...And I guess that's the end of this one, too._  

But true to her words, Chloe's stubborn nature wanted to keep going. 

"You want to eat lunch with us?" The hipster offers. "Enough seats for everyone." 

To Chloe's embarrassment, Max stiffly shakes her head. "I've never liked the cafeteria; too crowded. I don't like staying in one place too long either, if I'm not distracted. 

Plus, I already have a cool little private lunch spot." 

"Oh. Care to share?" The moment those words slipped out of her tongue, Chloe immediately scrunched her face once she realized. "Wait, forget I said that. God, I'm stupid, I didn't register that you said private—" 

"Do you have any plans after lunch?" 

Max suddenly turns to Chloe, her face seemingly still pondering a decision she was going to do. 

Chloe physically flinched from the interruption, her muscles going stiff under Max's gentle yet piercing stare. "Oh—I—uh—uhm—er, no—" 

"Come then." Max quickly jumped to her feet, tugging Chloe's wrist until the taller girl yanked herself from the table. 

The small adrenaline rush of doing the unknown quivered Chloe's voice a little. "Wait! W-where are we going? What about—" 

"Text them later," Max interrupts, tugging Chloe's wrist again when she saw her hesitantly slow down. "Time is precious hippie and we're short on stock! Get that ass in gear." 

"Can you at least tell me  _why_?" 

"We're catching a train." 

Chloe blinked and abruptly stopped in her tracks. The sudden movement caused Max to get pulled back and look at the blonde. 

"Uh. I'm sorry. A  _what?"_  

"A train. T-R-A-I-N. You know, a series of railroad cars—" 

"I should be offended that you thought that I didn't know what a train was but I'm more intrigued about the fact that  _why_  we're doing this." 

Max smirked enough to faintly indicate a dimple. "' _We?'_  So, you're in?" 

"I—" she interrupts herself with a frustrated sigh, rubbing her eyebrows. "I guess I am. 

But you better answer my damn questions." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls help me improve by telling me my mistakes, i didn't have time to proofread cause i was lowkey rushing to get this out; i finish writing a chapter around 11pm or so but i was procrastinating today sooo
> 
> ill be updating this chapter a hellovalot


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